Immigration Reform and Super Tuesday for Equality

          For many years now, our nation has debated the merits of race preferences ("affirmative action"). This debate has been conducted in our legislatures, our courts, our schools, our communities and at the ballot box. Now, our nation is engaged in a debate about immigration.

          This debate is wide ranging and many people honorably and strenuously disagree over what course America should take. However, immigration and race preferences cannot be considered in isolation. Under existing laws and policies, the majority of immigrants coming to America will automatically be eligible for race preferences and privileges not provided to the great majority of Americans. This is unfair!

As voters in California, Washington and Michigan made clear in their overwhelming support of ballot measures banning government mandated racial preferences – and as voters in five other states will have the opportunity to prove again in November 2008 – the American people strongly oppose the idea that our government should treat us differently based on race, ethnicity, sex or national origin.

Also See: Super Tuesday for Equality State Ballot Initiatives

          They understand that while preferences were aimed at giving a helping hand to those who had historically suffered discrimination, in practice they have served above all to compound injustice, needlessly breeding resentment by systematically privileging some Americans over others. Yet, immigrants cannot even claim to be victims of the historical discrimination that "affirmative action" was designed to redress.

It is essential that any new immigration legislation not perpetuate – indeed not exacerbate – these injustices. Any new legislation should include carefully drafted provisions to ensure that the new immigrants and their children not be afforded any special privileges that put existing Americans, including minority Americans who have suffered actual discrimination in the past, at a disadvantage.

News Stories

          We, the undersigned, hold a variety of views about immigration. But we are united in the conviction that each individual should be judged on his or her merits. While immigrants and their descendants should be afforded the right to compete fairly and freely in every aspect of American life, they should receive no special benefits on the basis of race, sex, ethnicity or national origin.

          We have drafted language that would enable the Congress to preserve this very important objective.

          Ours is a nation dedicated to the proposition that all of us should be treated as equals under the law. Those who seek to join the American family should likewise be treated as equals. No individual or group of individuals should bring to our land an expectation for a future entitlement to preferential treatment – and under no circumstances should we grant it.

Signatories:

          Brought to you by the American Civil Rights Institute -- www.acri.org --  an organization aimed at educating the public on the harms of racial and gender preferences and by "Super Tuesday" for Equal Rights - a project aimed at educating the people of Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma about the problems associated with race preferences in preparation for their vote on November 4, 2008.

Links to news and contact info for each of the 2008 state initiatives: